Canning

Sally Fallon Morell doesn’t recommend canning.

As many of you know Sally serves as the president of the Weston A. Price Foundation. She writes: “Canning greatly reduces the nutrient content, whereas lacto-fermentation increases the nutrient content—we encourage lacto-fermenation. Freezing is better than canning. But in the old days, the vegetables that folks ate in the winter were fermented, mainly cabbage. And they salted fish and meat.”

From Nourishing Traditions: “Canned foods should play a limited role in your cooking, not only because vitamins are destroyed but because canned foods lack enzymes. Fresh vegetables are almost always preferable with the exception of tomatoes. Tomatoes for canning are picked at the peak of ripeness with a carotene content much higher than most fresh tomatoes sold in stores. Carotenes survive the canning process although some other vitamins may not. Thus, limited use of canned tomato products is acceptable. The canning process reduces phytate content in legumes, such as kidney beans and chick peas, but the prolonged heat involved in the process may over denature some of the proteins contained in these foods.”

What about canning broth?

Here’s what Sally says: “I’ve never done it. The problem with broth is that it is alkaline and prone to botulism, so needs to be done with great care. I’d rather not take the risk. “

Maureen Diaz of God’s Good Table writes:

“Two things: first, I have learned over the years that pressure canning denatures proteins and destroys many nutrients, and so I do not recommend it at all. Water bath canning, sure, but not pressure. However, here’s number two: I reduce my stock by at least 50% on the stove top over a low simmer. Then you just reconstitute to whatever strength that you desire, but you’re taking far less space in the freezer. And furthermore, if you reduce it to the point that it is a thick gooey gel, it will be shelfstable, especially topped off with fat. So you don’t need to can at all, just slowly reduce until almost all of the moisture is gone. I’ve been teaching how to preserve essential foods for the pantry without refrigeration and canning, and this is one of the key things that I bring forward. So as an example, I reduce one quart of broth down to 2 tablespoons of concentrate, and it works just wonderfully!”